Houston Clerk Wins Shootout Against Armed Robber

A man entered a Houston, TX area convenience store, grabbed some beer and the proceeded to the counter, where he pulled a gun and demanded money. The clerk complied but midway through the confrontation he pulled his own firearm and began to fire. KHOU originally reported the story here:

A suspect is in custody after being shot by a clerk at a northwest Houston convenience store Friday morning, police said.

According to the Houston Police Department, officers responded at 8:45 a.m. to a call of a shooting in the 800 block of West Tidwell near Samrose.

“It was an adrenaline rush,” said Noman Ali, the store clerk who shot the suspect.

Investigators said an armed gunman walked into the Fuel Expo on West Tidwell and grabbed some beer before proceeding to the checkout counter.

Ali said that the suspect then pulled out his gun and demanded money. The clerk gave the man the money and then pulled out a gun of his own.

“I pulled out my gun and gave him a warning. After that, it took off back and forth shooting,” Ali said.

During the shooting, employees and customers were dogging bullets.

“There was no conversation, there was just gun fire. That’s all it was. The customers hid and that was it,” Ali said.

Ali said he shot the gunmen more than once, before the suspect fled the scene in a brown Ford Astrovan. The clerk then followed the suspect.

“Just to not let him go that was it. Crime needs to be stopped and that it, my goal is not to kill him,” he said.

The gunmen ended up crashing into a ditch near the intersection of De Priest and Lucky, police said. The suspect tried to get help from nearby residents demanding that they take him to a hospital.

“I came outside and I heard all this screeching and he tried to tell my neighbors help him get out. I said, “You been shot, you been shot,’” Janet Grant, a witness, said.

The suspect even pulled a gun on one person, police said.

“He had a gun, he pointed a gun at some of the guys and said, ‘You gonna take me somewhere.’ (Then) they (police) caught up with him on victory,” Grant said.

When police arrived at the scene, officers detained the suspect.

Police did not say how many times the suspect was shot or what condition he is in. Ali was just worried about his safety and the others in the store.